The 2007 documentary “Spying on the Home Front” examined then-President George W. Bush’s domestic war on terrorism and its implications for Americans’ civil liberties. (Aired 2007)
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The attacks on 9/11 altered America in many ways, from barricades and body frisks in airports to greater government scrutiny of people’s records and electronic surveillance of their communications. The watershed, officials told FRONTLINE in the 2007 documentary “Spying on the Home Front,” was the government’s shift to a strategy of pre-emption at home — not just prosecuting terrorists for breaking the law, but trying to find and stop them before they struck.
The documentary probed the ramifications of that strategy, explored how the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program worked at the time, and examined various viewpoints on whether the Bush administration violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and infringed on constitutional protections.
Read an update involving an AT&T case featured in the film:
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FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and airs nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Park Foundation; and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 – Prologue
08:01 – How Government Surveillance in the U.S. Changed After the 9/11 Attacks
16:58 – Revisiting the National Security Agency’s Post- 9/11 Surveillance Mechanisms
31:56 – A Look Back at Surveillance in One American City: Las Vegas
53:09 – Credits
